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Set your customer’s hair on fire
Greg McAdoo, of Sequoia Capital, is a big fan of startups who find customers whose hair is on fire, and then sells them a fire hose.
When someone’s hair is on fire, they don’t care if the fire hose is not the right color, leaks a bit, or has all the right government certifications. They just want to put the fire out and are willing to pay a lot for it.
When searching for ideas for your startup, if you can’t find examples of customers whose hair on fire, try a different approach.
Set the fire yourself.
Cirque du Soleil did this with the traditional circus.
Apple did it with the iPod.
Reddit did this with news.
So when trying to come up with that new killer startup idea, don’t worry if you can’t find customers whose hair’s on fire. Start your own and be ready with the hose.
To explore these ideas further check out:
And the YCombinator Startup school podcasts.
The Fire hose metaphor came from the 2007: Greg McAdoo Sequoia Capital podcast (13:50 min).
May 15th, 2007 at 2:43 am
hehe nice quote and metephor
May 16th, 2007 at 4:34 am
Cirque du Soleil? I’m as big a fan of them as anyone, but I don’t think anyone was ‘hair-on-fire’ desperate to go to the Circus. They win by being a new and unique entertainment venue, not by solving someone’s major problem.
May 16th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
The Circle du Soleil example is from Blue Ocean strategy. They created demand for something for which there was no previous demand.
I hear ya - whether that constitutes hair on fire is up for debate.
The point however is believe is still valid. If you can’t find a customer whose hair is on fire, create your own opportunity somewhere new (blue ocean).
May 21st, 2007 at 3:53 pm
I think the “hair on fire” strategy has been around a long time. This is why VCs fund enterprise businesses vs. consumer products. Consumers don’t often have a “fire” to put out, and are very price and quality sensitive. Enterprises often do have fires, and they are not as concerned with the polish of the product.
The Challenge with this “blue ocean” strategy (no I haven’t read the book) as presented, is that it is very hard to predict which one will work out.
Most of my colleagues who have made the big $$ did so by betting on new technology. However, many more peers did much better betting on oil and gas. Does blue ocean’s ideas apply?
Most businesses need to re-think how work gets executed in the business. The Big 3 automakers are on their knees, and Toyota make more money than all of them combined… how did that happen? Lean thinking, and the Toyota Production Sysem. This single innovation can not jus years but decades of competitive advantage. Something a competitor cannot just re-org to try to fix. Lean unleashed 1 million little innovations at toyota last year, that’s 3000 employee suggested improvements implemented PER DAY. What other comapny is doing that? What other company trusts its employees that much? What other labor force trusts its employer to offer up such changes, even if they might render their current job obselete?
These days, I think Lean, integrated with Agile, can drive more innovation than has ever been experienced in a business. It is my fire hose and its almost leak proof.
regards,
Robin Dymond
May 21st, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Wow. Crazy. I’ve never heard of a strategy like this. I have always thought that the best strategy for sales was to create something everyone needs in an established market, instead of creating something and then creating the market to go along with it……. creating a market or changing a market is very difficult, but doable with the right tools / approach….. Very interesting.
May 22nd, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Thanks for sharing Robin. No doubt Lean and Agile are fire hoses for some companies.
Cheers - JR
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